Prestwoodite in Moscow: St Petersburg

Half term so Peter and I decided to take a few days out and go to St Petersburg. We have been here two years and it is time we went. We got a good deal on flights and hotels so took off on Friday evening. Our hotel was small and up three floors, but it was clean and the staff very helpful and it was on Nevskiy Prospect, the main drag which leads to the centre. What more could we ask for?

A quick meal in Yalki Palki on Friday night and we headed to bed to be bright and early the next morning. Nevskiy Prospect is the spine of the city with all sorts of interesting buildings along it. Our days began and ended on this road.

Just along from our hotel I saw these figures in a bookshop window.

Our Lady of Kazan Cathedral

This cathedral is completly Russian Orthodox inside but outside it so different. On Monday morning we went inside to have a look and found a service, we think, for the installation of a new patriach or someone equally important. It was very interesting to watch even though we had no idea what exactly was happening. And on Monday morning too.

Gostiny Dvor - a very exclusive shopping mall now but was an important market in days gone by.

At the end of the 19th century the sewing machine company Singer had a factory here. This corner has been restored to its former glory.

I saw this outside a music shop.

This amazing building is over a metro entrance.

How's this for amazing architecture!!

Catherine the Great

And that is just the main road!! St Petersburg is only three hundred years old. Peter the First founded it at the beginning of the 1700. Though it became the new capital, in fact life moved between here and Moscow. Certainly the the 19th century it was a thriving and cosmopolitan city.

The first thing Peter and I noticed was the sky. Around the centre there are no high rise buildings so the city feels light and airy. The streets are wide, and though it is busy there isn't the grid lock we see in Moscow. The ground had to be drained as the city was built on a swamp so there is water everywhere. There are several rivers joined by canals. Here are some of the sights we saw as we walked.

This is one of a pair, the Rostral Columns which were lighthouses to guide boats in the harbour.

The Aurora signalled the start of the 1917 revolution by firing a blank cartridge in front of the Winter Palace. In WW2 it was sunk to protect it from the Germans and was lifted after the war to be restored.

A firestation - watch towers were built above fire stations. Peter and I first saw them on our trip to Yaruslavl where most of the towns were made of wood.